Our most popular reads from 2024
In 1849, French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. When I reviewed our best work from 2024, I noticed an unintended underlying theme in the ideas, strategies, and tactics we discussed: changing forces meant either remixing or reintroducing some tried-and-true methods.
It was not a year in which we struggled to find topics to write about. It’s no secret that we like interweaving our personal stories and interests into our content. This year, we’ve shoehorned in our namesake Europa, orbiting Jupiter, cricket, and even a pig falling in a pool.
Here’s a dive into our top five articles of the year and some behind-the-scenes reflections on what shaped them.
A young Dave Hayward with his pet pig Rosie (and hair)
1. I Hallucinate More Than AI Does
A pig falling in a swimming pool wasn’t a hallucination
This was one of my favourite articles because it’s a little personal, a lot nerdy, and entirely relatable. It’s about how AI hallucinations (those moments when AI confidently gets things wrong) have analogues in human experience.
My pig Rosie fell in a pool. It’s a story I’ve told a million times, but upon one telling, my sister noticed I’d misremembered a key detail: I wasn’t alone when it happened. Turns out, I’d conflated two separate stories over the years. That’s an example of confabulation.
Mistakes are vital for creativity. It’s a frustrating part of AI if you’re working with it to produce products or make decisions requiring high fidelity and data adherence. But AI and humans hallucinating together present creative opportunities and possibilities.
Persistence is a key driver of persuasion: I’ve been asked to leave some great restaurants selling coffee.
2. How Persuasion Works and How It Doesn’t
Lessons from Cialdini and selling coffee
I used to believe that if I said the right thing in the right order, I’d get the desired result. Of course, that is wrong. Selling coffee door-to-door in London taught me that timing, persistence, and having the right product for the right are much more important drivers of success.
I paired those insights with Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, like reciprocity and social proof. It was a personal favourite to write because it merged the science of influence with real-world stories: I got thrown out of some of the best restaurants in London… only to indirectly land a job as a national sales manager for Darlington’s Coffee through that persistence.
Marketing faces intense disruption through AI and other forces, but the same fundamental drivers underpin human behaviour.
Vanity or valuable? Marketing metrics that matter “What metrics do we measure? How do we measure ROI?”
3. Vanity or Valuable? Marketing Metrics That Matter
Rethinking what success really looks like
Impressions, click-through rates, engagement… these metrics dominate so many marketing conversations, yet they don’t always tell the whole story. Writing this article was an opportunity to challenge the obsession with vanity metrics and focus on what matters: revenue, profit, talent acquisition, and sustainable growth.
Every marketer alive finds themselves referencing The Long and the Short of It by Les Binet and Peter Field, and this humble marketer is not alone.
While the mediums and tactics change, great marketing balances short-term performance with long-term brand building.
Edmundo Ortega, speaking at Spark Accelerate, November, 2024.
4. Anyone Who Says They’re an AI Expert Is Lying
Humility and curiosity required
We can claim no credit for the genius behind the concepts presented here. That’s because this is a summary of a presentation by our friend Edmundo Ortega from Machine & Partners at the excellent Spark Accelerate.
When it comes to AI – it is all go, all change, and everything is in motion. One feature is that true expertise is rare because AI is evolving so fast. In the face of this changing beast, what matters is curiosity, humility, and a willingness to learn. But read the article for truly great “truth bombs” from Ed!
Investing in marketing during tough trading times results in higher return on investment
5. Going on the Attack: Marketing in a Competitive Landscape
Time to play Bazball
New Zealand is suffering a profound downturn, but conditions are at least bumpy in all the markets we operate in (mainly Europe, Australasia, Asia Pacific, and the US). Noticeably, in 2024, businesses were pulling back on marketing, playing it safe in uncertain markets. But the data—and history—tell a different story: downturns are often the best time to invest in marketing and go on the offensive. Or, to put it another way, for cricket aficionados, it’s time to play Bazball. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, everything is revealed in the article.)
The case studies that bring the data to life show that bold, strategic marketing during tough times can lead to long-term gains. Despite changing circumstances, a clear and credible strategy: fortune favours the brave.
What’s Next?
As we head into 2025, we’ll continue to explore the intersections of creativity, strategy, and technology, especially concerning marketing and business.
Some days, as someone in the mid-to-late part of my career working in marketing, I feel positively ancient. Looking back on our content for the year, it stuck out that the lessons that have carried me through my career still hold weight. Among them are staying curious, humility, strategy counts and execution rules.
Thank you for being part of this journey. Here’s to another year of ideas, bold moves, and maybe a few more surprising stories.